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ROF

Started by Oche, April 27, 2014, 10:32:41 AM

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Oche

I want to buy the best DL version of Rise of Flight (latest with all updates?), any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Silent Disapproval Robot

First decide if you want the Steam version or the non-Steam version as they aren't compatible.  The Steam version lets you buy packs of planes and maps whereas the non-Steam version lets you pick and choose exactly which planes, maps, and plane accoutrements you would like.   

Regardless of which version you get, the base game will be fully up to date.  I'd recommend getting Patrick Wilson's Campaign Generator if you want to play single player. 

Here's his latest blurb:

QuotePWCG allows you to play the role of a WWI pilot. You choose a service and you fly for it. You can freely transfer between squadrons within your service. You are in control.

You can join the RNAS. You can transfer between land and sea planes. Fly a Felixstowe for awhile and then transfer to a Camel squadron. After April 1918 you will be merged into the RAF and then you can fly for any squadrons. Go from Felixstowe, to Camel, to SE5a after the merger. You can throw in some time in two seaters if you like.

Join the RFC. Start your career in two seaters. Transfer to a home defense squadron for awhile and try to take down a Gotha at night. Then it's back to the front.

Join the German Air Service. Start your career in two seaters. Use your aggressive nature to bring down an enemy and earn a transfer to scouts. Be a Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, or Wurtemburger and earn medals from your kingdom.

Join the German Navy. Fly sea planes and then transfer to land based scouts and back again.

Join the French air force and fly two seaters or scouts. Defend Verdun early in the war. The use of the FE2b in place of the Farman and other French pushers allows two seater careers to start in 1916.

Be an American flying for the allies. Choose to be an American and fly as one in any Allied squadron. Once the Americans join the war you can choose to transfer into an American squadron. Make the choice carefully though, it is a one way ticket.

Join the Belgian air force and fly for that beleaguered nation. You can fly scouts or two seaters. Join Willy Coppens on a balloon bust.

Fly as a scout and see how you match up. Want to be a balloon buster? There are always balloons about but the AAA is fierce. Enemy and friendly flights are not spawned at trigger points but actually go about their business just as you do. This makes encounters natural. You might encounter a flight doing anything, from any direction, at any altitude. Mission parameters are historical so the things that they do will make sense.

Fly two seaters. Rise of Flight offers more options for WWI two seater activity than any other that I am aware of. Fly recon missions and take pictures. Maybe a nice dull flight along the front, or maybe a hair raising chase by enemy pilots. Bomb many different troop positions, moving trucks, moving trains, etc. Direct artillery onto targets using RoF's artillery
spot mechanism. Pay attention and get the artillery on target. Fly a contact patrol. Sounds simple right? Just fly along the front and look for the flare. Problem is you are flying low, and there are lots of people on the ground that want to kill you.

Fly strategic bombers. You will target enemy ports, factories, and sometimes shipping or even tactical targets like troop concentrations. Missions are flown at night, so getting up and down is half the challenge. Opposition in the form of night fighters is there, and getting caught by the search lights can be disastrous. Now Gothas will do historically accurate daylight raids before transitioning to night raids.

Fly as an observer. Take the back seat. Get your observers badge and get a few missions at the front under your belt before getting your wings. Protect your aircraft and do the really important work, photography bombing and spotting. You are not locked in. Transfers allow you to transition from pilot to observer and back again. Many top pilots started their career as observers, worked their way to pilot, and then to scout pilot. PWCG now allows you to recreate this career path.

PWCG also gives pilots their wings - pilot badges for Germans and Belgians, cloth wings for other Allies. Observers also get their badges.

For any ground attack there might be a battle going on underneath you. The attacker will be attempting to advance on the defender's position. Artillery and machine guns will be firing, tanks will be rolling, and a flare might pop to mark a position. Join the fray? Go ahead, but those guys on the ground are not helpless.

Medals are awarded historically. German medals for consistent performance and Allied medals more for acts of bravery. Ranks are correct for your service, and promotions come with experience and success. Higher ranking pilots are given the better planes. As of 14.5 medal awards have been revised to provide different criteria for scouts and recon.

Your AI pilots also improve with experience and success. If you are a leader, let your AI mates finish a cripple. Fly inexperienced pilots with experienced ones. You might be rewarded when the ace that you nurtured saves your bacon in a tough fight.

AI flight mates now include observers in two seat squadrons and gunners in strategic bombing squadrons. These AI flight mates will also live, die, and improve over time.

In the briefing room you can change the mission. Move a waypoint, change the altitude, change the fuel load, etc. Move to the pilot board to change the pilots and plane assignments. Don't like your plane? Give yourself a different one - as long as your squadron is actually flying it.

Use the debrief to find out what happened on your mission. Claim your victories and see if they are confirmed. Add your comments to the combat report. When you are done, read the latest news and reports after the mission. Did an ace die? Was a squadron mate awarded a medal? Has a new offensive begun?

While you are in your campaign look at the squadron logs to see what happened in your unit over the course of your career. Look at your journal to see old combat reports. If you want to adds notes, you can.

PWCG allows you to fly dead is dead. select this option in advanced config and take your chances. Flying DiD also allows your pilot to be captured. If the vagaries of flying a computer sim are too much for DiD, choose heavily wounded as a maximum penalty. It is no small penalty as you will be out of action for months. I call this the Berthold/Nungesser career path.

There are nearly 200 aces in PWCG, pretty much every ace that scored 20 or more. Since French victory confirmation was tougher I made am extra effort to get a good number of French aces in. Aces live, score and die as they actually did. Non historic events - i.e. things that happen while they are flying in your missions - also happen, so an ace might score a few extra
victories or die early. Aces fly with you and against you. They transfer into and out of your squadron as they should. Their records are available from your squadron screen. The top 10 aces at any time are shown in the top aces screen. Aces fly with their skins whenever the skin exists. Ace skins can change over time.

PWCG uses any historical or plausible skins that are available. Squadron skins are represented. Wherever a squadron skin exists PWCG makes appropriate use of it. Changes in camouflage and markings are historically represented. German crosses change. German camouflage transitions from green/brown to green/mauve to various forms of lozenge. French transition from CDL to camouflage. British transition from CDL to PC10. To add to the variety,if non-ace personal schemes exists for a unit they are used in conjunction with the generic squadron markings. plain Factory markings are also sometimes used to mix things up further.

There's not much that PWCG does not let you do.

You can download it here:

http://www.pwcampaigngenerator.com/WebSite/PWCG.html

Nefaro

#2
I held out until the Steam version came out.  There are some advantages and disadvantages to both but you will have to decide which before buying because, as mentioned, you cannot mix purchases between them (although they are multi-player compatible).

Original Version:

1) Can purchase planes individually.  Pick & choose.  Sometimes there are sales.

2) You get to choose from the whole catalog, including the very latest planes.

Steam Version:

1) The planes are all packaged into a handful of DLC packs.  There are around 4-to-6 planes in each one.  While the price is obviously high for these DLC packs, you will save money over buying the planes individually.   These packs also tend to cover a specific war period and nation so it helps fill out such single-player campaign periods. 

2)  The base Steam pack is the Channel Battles Edition and I think you get more bang for your buck here, too since you also get the Channel map (essential for northern Flanders front glaringly missing in the original map) and a big ass Felixstowe flying boat (didn't care about this so much, myself).  Most importantly, you get some of the big-name aircraft models:  SPAD 13, Nieuport 17, Nieuport 28, Albatros D.Va, Fokker D.VII, Fokker DR.1, Pfalz D.XII, Sopwith Camel, and S.E.5a without having to purchase them individually.  So, yeah.. value is the word.

3) Con:  The latest new aircraft to be released do not have a Steam DLC pack yet.  I think there are a couple models that were recently released which aren't available on Steam.   Like the Sopwith Strutter, F.E.2b(?), and the upcoming Hanriot HD.1. Considering all the others I have yet to dig into, I haven't been too concerned but this could be an issue for anyone specifically looking to fly these models.  I've been interested in flying a Hanriot (Belgian air force anyone?) so hopefully the will eventually make another Steam DLC when they have enough new ones.  Not sure if that will happen, though.

4) There have been a number of sales since it's Steam release last Fall so it seems like there are more catalog-wide sales on Steam during any time period.

Oche

Got it, thank you guys, i think i'll go with the Steam version. Been a Bomber nut my main reason to hop into ROF is flying the Gothas and Handley Pages either in single missions or campaigns, i reckon i will put MANY hours into it.

Just bought IL2-COD (DVD) as well, (IL2 bomber veteran HE-111s, B-25s & G4Ms) so i can't wait to fly the Bleinheims and Wellingtons as well.

MengJiao

Quote from: Oche on April 27, 2014, 09:44:04 PM
Got it, thank you guys, i think i'll go with the Steam version. Been a Bomber nut my main reason to hop into ROF is flying the Gothas and Handley Pages either in single missions or campaigns, i reckon i will put MANY hours into it.

Just bought IL2-COD (DVD) as well, (IL2 bomber veteran HE-111s, B-25s & G4Ms) so i can't wait to fly the Bleinheims and Wellingtons as well.

I don't think you can fly the Wellington, but the Ju88 is pretty neato.

Nefaro

That reminds me..

I really want to start up some Bristol F2b campaigns in ROF and WOFF.  Like the first Multi-Role Fighter.  Those things are beastly in ROF. 

Oche

Quote from: MengJiao on April 27, 2014, 09:49:30 PM
Quote from: Oche on April 27, 2014, 09:44:04 PM
Got it, thank you guys, i think i'll go with the Steam version. Been a Bomber nut my main reason to hop into ROF is flying the Gothas and Handley Pages either in single missions or campaigns, i reckon i will put MANY hours into it.

Just bought IL2-COD (DVD) as well, (IL2 bomber veteran HE-111s, B-25s & G4Ms) so i can't wait to fly the Bleinheims and Wellingtons as well.

I don't think you can fly the Wellington, but the Ju88 is pretty neato.

I think the Wellington is available to fly online thru some available mod i think, nevertheless bombing targets in England and Nazi occupied France will do for me with the available bombers in the vanilla version 8) .

TacticalWargames

If you play single player only I'd go for Wings Over Flanders Field instead.

Nefaro

#8
Quote from: TacticalWargames on April 30, 2014, 12:19:59 PM
If you play single player only I'd go for Wings Over Flanders Field instead.

This.

I have been playing some campaign stuff in ROF lately.  Both the official Beta dynamic campaign and Pat Wilson's campaign generator mod.  But once you get into the sim, the world feels a bit lifeless.  There is also reportedly nothing around if you stray away from you flight lead, as their world is just a bubble with the occasional spawn happening, centered on the flight lead. 

I've recently noticed a couple other things about ROF that annoy me.  One is how the damn joystick axis range is too damn short.  I had always wondered why the controls in ROF felt exceptionally touchy.  My joystick has an extra 20% of moveable range left by the time the ROF control range maxes out.  So it makes my joystick more sensitive than it should be.  Make Nef mad that he has to use too much 'S-curve', thus making it even more awkward for a bit more precision in the early part of the movement range.

Another thing I've encountered a few times recently in the campaign is the flak bursts.  For one, I've been completely destroyed by an archie burst two or three times in about a dozen campaign missions.  This is massively out of whack for historical rates; they were so abyssmal the pilots all professed to having a large disdain for their effectiveness, after their initial shock of seeing them.  Just flying along at 1500 to 2000m in formation with the Autopilot running things and WHAM... insta-killed!  I thought, "well that's just my poor luck" the first time, but after the second and third I see that it's not ideal.

I really like ROF and it's well worth a purchase.  Hell.. I've been playing both ROF and WOFF like crazy.  I think my biggest complaint about ROF is the joystick sensitivity settings won't let me use my joystick to it's fullest.  That frustrates me every time I fly it.  Whereas WOFF's sensitivity settings are far simpler, yet allow me to use my full range of joystick motion (therefore making it more precise). 

WOFF's campaign play is far more alive, too, since every squadron in your region (and ground forces) are active and have missions.  This is where it really shines.  You can come across all kinds of situations.  I recall one example - seeing some dark archie bursts below me and a few specks maneuvering around.  It ended up being a wounded allied aircraft (French IIRC?) trying to get back to friendly lines with an enemy chasing him and artillery bursting about.  So I dove on the German pursuer and gave him something else to concentrate on.  Unfortunately the rest of my flight didn't see it and had continued on.  Before I knew it the German pilot's buddies showed up and caught me by surprise so I ended up being the one trying to escape.  At that point another flight of patrolling British planes happened by and joined the fray.   I could hear gunshots and artillery fire from the ground troops below as the fight got lower.  Such chains of events can happen in an 'alive' campaign world whereas ROF's individual missions with spawns happening when your flight nears isn't as immersive, despite some of the newer graphics effects.

The flight and damage models are a bit different for both.  ROF's flight is more complex but WOFF's is easier to manage (largely due to the better joystick sensitivity range), however you have to be more careful with handling the latter's aircraft as it's easier to rip off wings in dives or pulling the stick too hard with some models.  ROF's damage modelling looks pretty awesome, but it's predicated upon shooting the wings off planes and the fuselage hits are largely ineffective from the rear (just not right IMO since most accounts stressed shooting the pilot, engine, etc to get effective kills - not shooting the damn wings off!).  On the other hand, it usually takes a lot of bullets to bring down an enemy in WOFF no matter where you hit them, if you want to make them go down now.  But they tend to try running for home if you damage them so they're also not "Terminator bots".

I could probably ramble on about the pros and cons of each, but if I were to choose one then I would base it on which mode I'd be playing most.  Single-player dynamic campaign = WOFF.  Multi-player = ROF.  Admittedly, ROF is capable of both but the campaigns for it didn't keep me playing anywhere near as much as WOFF's.  Considering the way you have to pay for each plane in ROF, it's also been more expensive, even getting it all while on sale whereas you get all the playables in one package with WOFF.

You probably already know which game I've ended up playing far more.  ;)

Silent Disapproval Robot

Maybe you should buy a lottery ticket.  Or an anti-lottery ticket.

By the sounds of your posts, I think I have put a lot more time into RoF than you, Nef.  I completed a couple of bomber campaigns and more than a dozen fighter campaigns.  I think I've been knocked down by heavy flak twice and by light AA maybe half a dozen times.


Nefaro

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 30, 2014, 03:15:05 PM
Maybe you should buy a lottery ticket.  Or an anti-lottery ticket.

By the sounds of your posts, I think I have put a lot more time into RoF than you, Nef.  I completed a couple of bomber campaigns and more than a dozen fighter campaigns.  I think I've been knocked down by heavy flak twice and by light AA maybe half a dozen times.

Must be my poor luck then.  I figured that may be the case.

I'm quite sure you've put more time into ROF.  I've really only started exploring the thing in the last year or so and still rather gingerly due to the axis sensitivity problems.  I wish the scales were notably wider in the settings, so that I could set their limits to match those of my stick.  :-\  It burns me that so much extra range on my stick is unused, while the used area is too touchy for my tastes.  This is my biggest complaint.

MengJiao

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 30, 2014, 03:15:05 PM
Maybe you should buy a lottery ticket.  Or an anti-lottery ticket.

By the sounds of your posts, I think I have put a lot more time into RoF than you, Nef.  I completed a couple of bomber campaigns and more than a dozen fighter campaigns.  I think I've been knocked down by heavy flak twice and by light AA maybe half a dozen times.

I think I've been blown up 2 or 3 times by flak in ROF while in campaigns, but never since I observed the following rules:
1) get above 2000 meters over no-man's land
2) don't fly straight and level over no-man's land even at 2000 meters

On the other hand, I haven't flown that many missions in campaigns and the flak and MGs on the barges off Fantasy Island have hit me pretty often, though again, not much at all when I was at higher altitudes and/or slightly evasive.

Nefaro

Quote from: MengJiao on May 01, 2014, 08:31:49 AM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 30, 2014, 03:15:05 PM
Maybe you should buy a lottery ticket.  Or an anti-lottery ticket.

By the sounds of your posts, I think I have put a lot more time into RoF than you, Nef.  I completed a couple of bomber campaigns and more than a dozen fighter campaigns.  I think I've been knocked down by heavy flak twice and by light AA maybe half a dozen times.

I think I've been blown up 2 or 3 times by flak in ROF while in campaigns, but never since I observed the following rules:
1) get above 2000 meters over no-man's land
2) don't fly straight and level over no-man's land even at 2000 meters

On the other hand, I haven't flown that many missions in campaigns and the flak and MGs on the barges off Fantasy Island have hit me pretty often, though again, not much at all when I was at higher altitudes and/or slightly evasive.

Bad thing is... both of those rules are out if you follow the flight plan by running Autopilot with time compression on.  I'm certainly not gonna be flying the whole thing myself, in real-time.  Takes way too long so I get through the inaction quickly.  That entails the AI piloting the plane along the mission path, often not reaching 2km altitude until the objective point (if a patrol).  :-\

I'll just have to take my chances with the occasional lucky Archie.  Although I keep switching over to WOFF for campaign play after a couple missions in ROF anyway. 

MengJiao

Quote from: Nefaro on May 01, 2014, 11:23:48 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on May 01, 2014, 08:31:49 AM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 30, 2014, 03:15:05 PM
Maybe you should buy a lottery ticket.  Or an anti-lottery ticket.

By the sounds of your posts, I think I have put a lot more time into RoF than you, Nef.  I completed a couple of bomber campaigns and more than a dozen fighter campaigns.  I think I've been knocked down by heavy flak twice and by light AA maybe half a dozen times.

I think I've been blown up 2 or 3 times by flak in ROF while in campaigns, but never since I observed the following rules:
1) get above 2000 meters over no-man's land
2) don't fly straight and level over no-man's land even at 2000 meters

On the other hand, I haven't flown that many missions in campaigns and the flak and MGs on the barges off Fantasy Island have hit me pretty often, though again, not much at all when I was at higher altitudes and/or slightly evasive.

Bad thing is... both of those rules are out if you follow the flight plan by running Autopilot with time compression on.  I'm certainly not gonna be flying the whole thing myself, in real-time.  Takes way too long so I get through the inaction quickly.  That entails the AI piloting the plane along the mission path, often not reaching 2km altitude until the objective point (if a patrol).  :-\

I'll just have to take my chances with the occasional lucky Archie.  Although I keep switching over to WOFF for campaign play after a couple missions in ROF anyway.

WOFF sounds like more fun.  Most of the time I've played ROF lately it has been quick missions with different kinds of planes bombing barges off the fantasy island.  No transit time and you can vary all the parameters and opposing AI planes and so on.

My next big air game adventure is going to be Battle of Stalingrad.  Which I hope will be sort of like an improved ROF with lots of cranky Russian planes.

Silent Disapproval Robot

It's got cranky Soviet planes, that's for sure.  The LaGG-3 is a death trap.  If you don't like flak in ROF, you're going to hate flying low over Stalingrad.   The devs have said they're going to stick to the plan to deliver historical realism over play balance and it shows.  The German fighters really outclass the Soviet stuff but the Soviet bombers and ground attack planes are quite good at their jobs as compared to the Stukas.  What's surprising me and many on the forums is just how fragile the planes are in BOS.  Usually all it takes to knock you down are two to three 20mm cannon rounds.